Recent evidence suggests that some people give off masking odors that prevent mosquitoes from finding them. Recently, scientists at Rothamsted Research in the UK discovered that some people produce chemicals that smell bad to mosquitoes, masking the chemicals that usually attract the mosquitos.

James Logan and John Pickett (Vince, 2006) devised some unique ways of testing body odor. First, they had two different people put one hand into each end of a chamber and the investigators watched which hand the mosquitoes preferred. Then they selected the person who was not preferred (who felt lucky up to this point) and sealed their body in foil to collect their sweat. Talk about an unpleasant experiment. The researchers set about analyzing the body chemicals and are now waiting to patent the results in hopes of producing a natural insect repellent.

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